Test 9 · ★ · Plate tectonics

Why did Wegener's idea win in the end?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: idea · What happens: do, win · To what, where: end

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 42 «Plate tectonics» of the geography course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 did	advmod
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Wegener	Wegener	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 idea	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 Wegener	case
5	idea	idea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 win	nsubj
6	win	win	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	ccomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 end	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 end	det
9	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 win	obl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past							tree rules
2	win	present	Wegener's idea				in the end		vn succeed-74-2 «NP V PP.eventuality S_ING»: agent=Agent in end=Eventuality

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Wegener found a map from Roman times that showed the continents joined

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wegener	Wegener	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 found	nsubj
2	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 map	det
4	map	map	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 found	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 times	case
6	Roman	roman	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 times	amod
7	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 found	obl
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 showed	nsubj
9	showed	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 times	acl:relcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 continents	det
11	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 showed	obj
12	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 continents	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	find	past	Wegener	a map	time	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent map=Topic
2	show	past	Roman times	the continents		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent continent=Recipient
3	join	participle		the continents not said here		vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Magnetic stripes on the sea floor showed new crust spreading from the ridges

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Magnetic	magnetic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 stripes	amod
2	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 showed	nsubj
3	on	on	ADP	_	6 floor	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 floor	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 floor	compound
6	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stripes	nmod
7	showed	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 crust	amod
9	crust	crust	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 showed	obj
10	spreading	spread	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 crust	acl
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 ridges	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 ridges	det
13	ridges	ridge	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 spreading	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	past	Magnetic stripes on the sea floor	new crust					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent crust=Recipient
2	spread	gerund	new crust not said here			the ridges			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Astronauts saw the continents moving

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Astronauts	astronaut	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 saw	nsubj
2	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 continents	det
4	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 saw	obj
5	moving	move	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 continents	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	past	Astronauts	the continents					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer continent=Stimulus
2	move	gerund	the continents not said here						vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The idea was voted for by schoolchildren

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 idea	det
2	idea	idea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 voted	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 voted	aux:pass
4	voted	vote	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	4 voted	compound:prt
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 schoolchildren	case
7	schoolchildren	schoolchild	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 voted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	vote for	past · passive	schoolchildren	the idea					vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/42-plate-tectonics/t9/